It's gonna be alright
Dum Dum Girls — I
Will Be
Dee Dee, Jules, Frankie Rose and Bambi make up the girl gang that is Dum Dum Girls. Formed in 2008, and the former solo project of lead singer Dee Dee (Kristen Gundred) I Will Be is the first fulllength disc from the DDG.
It feels like the Dum Dum Girls are a part of a new uprising in young bands (such as Vivian Girls and The Raveonettes) that are heavily inspired by The Vaselines.
Dee Dee's voice at times is very reminiscent of Frances McKee and the bands name itself is a nod to The Vaselines track Dum-Dum. Still, the self-titled “blissed out buzzsaw” sound that Dum Dum Girls have is a result of more than just the second-hand genius of McKee and Eugene Kelly. I Will Be has fantastic pop hooks, high highs and low lows, a very teenage sounding album that harkens back to the girl groups of the 1960s but a little more distorted and a little more punk rock. Imagine if you will The Ronettes meet up with The Vaselines and spend a lot of time hanging out on the beach and going to drag races and making bubblegum pop hooks, and you basically have the sound of Dum Dum Girls.
I Will Be opens with the energetic It Only Takes One Night with echo-ey vocals and a sinister plotting vibe and tracks like Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout an ode to psychedelics with an open road quality, and Blank Girl - a sweet, moody and lovesick nostalgia duet featuring Crocodiles' Brandon Welchez.
The important quality within this album is the juxtaposition between Dee Dee's sweet vocals and favour for lo-fi distortion and grittiness, and co-producer Richard Gottehrer (who wrote the infamous pop tracks My Boyfriends Back and I Want Candy and produced groups like The Voidoids and Blondie) coating it in some sugar and polishing it up a bit.
The result is something both heavy and warm that feels like it's reaching for something long gone and it's something that would sound amazing on vinyl. It's fair to describe Dum Dum Girls as being rock with heavy pop sensibility, and the tracks are at times incredibly fierce for a first release, even featuring The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Nick Zinner on guitar for Yours Alone.
Fragile but tough, angry and pretty, I Will Be is a contradictory lovelorn teenage symphony complete with bi-polar highs and lows. Phil Spector would be proud.
More info and tracks by Dum Dum Girls at: www.myspace.com/dumdumgirls
Dee Dee, Jules, Frankie Rose and Bambi make up the girl gang that is Dum Dum Girls. Formed in 2008, and the former solo project of lead singer Dee Dee (Kristen Gundred) I Will Be is the first fulllength disc from the DDG.
It feels like the Dum Dum Girls are a part of a new uprising in young bands (such as Vivian Girls and The Raveonettes) that are heavily inspired by The Vaselines.
Dee Dee's voice at times is very reminiscent of Frances McKee and the bands name itself is a nod to The Vaselines track Dum-Dum. Still, the self-titled “blissed out buzzsaw” sound that Dum Dum Girls have is a result of more than just the second-hand genius of McKee and Eugene Kelly. I Will Be has fantastic pop hooks, high highs and low lows, a very teenage sounding album that harkens back to the girl groups of the 1960s but a little more distorted and a little more punk rock. Imagine if you will The Ronettes meet up with The Vaselines and spend a lot of time hanging out on the beach and going to drag races and making bubblegum pop hooks, and you basically have the sound of Dum Dum Girls.
I Will Be opens with the energetic It Only Takes One Night with echo-ey vocals and a sinister plotting vibe and tracks like Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout an ode to psychedelics with an open road quality, and Blank Girl - a sweet, moody and lovesick nostalgia duet featuring Crocodiles' Brandon Welchez.
The important quality within this album is the juxtaposition between Dee Dee's sweet vocals and favour for lo-fi distortion and grittiness, and co-producer Richard Gottehrer (who wrote the infamous pop tracks My Boyfriends Back and I Want Candy and produced groups like The Voidoids and Blondie) coating it in some sugar and polishing it up a bit.
The result is something both heavy and warm that feels like it's reaching for something long gone and it's something that would sound amazing on vinyl. It's fair to describe Dum Dum Girls as being rock with heavy pop sensibility, and the tracks are at times incredibly fierce for a first release, even featuring The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Nick Zinner on guitar for Yours Alone.
Fragile but tough, angry and pretty, I Will Be is a contradictory lovelorn teenage symphony complete with bi-polar highs and lows. Phil Spector would be proud.
More info and tracks by Dum Dum Girls at: www.myspace.com/dumdumgirls
